What You Need to Know About Soundproofing Your Home Theater Installation

Enjoy the Full Impact of Your AV Without Disturbing Your Bloomington, IL Neighbors

When you think about a home theater installation, you probably imagine awesome 4K Ultra HD images and immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound. Whatever you picture, you probably don’t think about some of the more practical aspects of a private cinema – like how important soundproofing can be to your setup. But since it’s one of the biggest parts of any custom theater design, you should start considering the factors early. And that’s what this blog is for. Interested in learning some important stuff about soundproofing? Keep reading!

Many homeowners – as well as some professionals – use the term “acoustic treatment” as a catch-all for any design element that affects the sounds within a room. That’s technically correct; acoustic treatments are panels placed on the walls and ceiling to absorb the soundwaves and minimize echo. That’s important if you don’t want your big action movie set-pieces to sound like they they’re coming from the other end of a tunnel. Soundproofing, on the other hand, doesn’t make your system sound any better. Instead, it keeps the sound from bleeding out through the walls and disturbing the neighborhood. The concept is simple: you want to play your movies and music at an acceptably loud level, but that doesn’t mean your family upstairs wants to hear it. Soundproofing helps satisfy everyone.

How Soundproofing Works

The basics of soundproofing are simple: sound emanates from a source in waves. Those waves cause vibrations in nearby objects and air, and when those vibrations reach your ear, they produce a sound. So soundproofing is the concept of minimizing the vibrations’ ability to vibrate the walls around the room so the sound can’t escape on the other side. Among the most common forms of soundproofing is adding foam between walls. The specially produced material absorbs the sounds and keep them from leaving the room. It’s an appropriate way to minimize sound bleed, but if the audio is loud enough the foam can fail. Decoupling is another strategy many installers use to soundproof theaters. That’s the act of separating the two sides of a wall, so that no part of either side touches the other. Essentially, it’s the act of building a room within a room. By leaving nothing but air between both sides of the wall, sound waves have nowhere to go. However, decoupling isn’t the only strategy that quality installers use. There’s also plenty of noise dampening and sound absorbing materials that come into play. Every room is unique, so it’s very likely that you’ll need a customized solution to completely soundproof your home theater installation. The best approach to soundproofing is to contact a professional for an in-person assessment. If you’d like to get started, contact Liaison Homes to learn more.